Aftermarket BG-E7 battery grip and chipped LP-E6

Hi to all,

I've got an aftermarket bg and I've a "problem".

When I use 2 battery inside, the 7D shows info battery only from battery that is on the left side. Also, and this is another question, when I

put only one lp-e6 and on the right side, the body shows battery info as I use two of them instead of one. So I don't know when there are

two battery or one inside.

On another type of bg-e7 of a friend of mine, when there is only one battery inside, I see only one info in the info battery menu.

What do you think about?

<p>That's one of the quirks of the knockoffs. I've got one (for the 5D2) that does the same thing (a zeikos unit). The OEM one doesn't have that problem (of course), but for the extra $200 I paid for it (over the zeikos) I'd not expect it too. Also, If I gank the batts w/o a power cycle, after reclosing the cover I get a 'can not commnicate w/ batt' error. a small annoyance resolved by a power cycle.</p>

<p>There is so much variation between manufacturers though on these guys that unless you got the exact same brand as your buddy's I wouldn't expect it to work the same as OEM. For me it's not a big deal, as I use my batts in matched sets, but if you are battery retentive, it may be worth sending back and getting one of the same off brand as your buddy or an OEM unit, just for your own piece of mind.</p>

<p>IMO the whole 'chipped smart battery' is one of those silly useless 'extras' that Canon bundles in to add difficulty to the user (and cost to their bottom line), and while I'm sure that there is some user (who is likely to copy/past this part and rail about it) out there who actually needs/wants to know that after 352 shutter releases, battery life is down to 37% *rolling eyes*, it has so little to do with the actual photography, it's not something that even crosses my mind most time. The battery indicator on the 5D/40D/50D/Xti all worked just fine for me thank you very much!</p>

<p>thank for response, Marcus. I agree with you about the not so usefull of the chip. My post was only for know if the Bg-E7 was damaged or if this is a common problem on aftermarket products.<br />I'll testing the real life of a power cycle of each my batt. This is the very important thing.</p>

<p>I suppose that it's good to know whether a given battery is 'fully' capable. Just understand the limits of comparative conclusions, and that the service life is finite (and sometimes, regardless of manufacturer, unpredictable). I guess since the camera can remember all that now it should be able to give you a friendly warning when it detects charge variations that indicate a battery failure is impending (aka predicting the future ;-) )... Guess we'll see, I haven't had an LP-E6 (OEM or 3rd party) fail yet, but I'm sure it's coming...</p>

<p>I sent my "genuine" canon bg-e7 back to China and purchased a genuine bg-e7 from B&H. The first grip would stop the front wheel on the camera from working. Since I got the one from B&H not a single problem. You get what you pay for I suppose.</p>

<p>I have a Meike grip which I have been using with my 7D for almost two years with no problems. A few weeks ago I had both problems mentioned above, front wheel not responding and Canon batteries not supplying charge information.<br>

I removed the grip and cleaned the electrical contacts with a lens cleaning cloth and everything is working perfectly again.</p>

I bought this one on ebay http://www.ebay.it/itm/200611160800?

ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.it%3A80%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dp5197.m570.l1313%26_nk

w%3D200611160800%26_sacat%3DSee-All-Categories%26_fvi%3D1&_rdc=1#ht_8291wt_934

 

Sure, it's so cheap that it could be normal if there isn't full compatibility.